Mayor Bill Peduto Guest DJs on The Morning Mix

Mayor Bill Peduto plays Guest DJ on The Morning Mix with Cindy Howes.

Mayor Bill Peduto joined WYEP as a guest DJ in which he picked three songs and talked about how he is not only a big supporter of local music but has been one for decades. “As a kid I would go down to The Decade and use fake ID to get in to be able to see [artists like Donnie Iris and Joe Grushecky].” Peduto said what he loves about the local music scene is the “really good people, really great music and great accessibility for the fans.”

One of Peduto’s favorite local bands Lohio played at the mayor’s inauguration as well as invited him onstage to play the band’s song ‘Atlas and a Girl’ on tambourine with the band at Billobox, he says. “The first time I got onstage and did it, there was beer involved of course, and the thunderous bass drum, and the bass guitar shakes the stage, and it felt great. There’s no time that you’re onstage giving a speech where the stage is shaking, unless people are trying to get to you to kill you because you haven’t fixed potholes.”

Peduto cites his three older brothers as initially introducing him to music, and though he couldn’t even read at the time, Peduto said he would highlight records with markers to remember what songs he liked. Peduto’s brother bought him his first albums, which were the first three albums of The Monkeys, when Peduto got his tonsils out at the age of seven. “By seventh grade, I remember my brother Guy brought home an album, and I heard it, and I went back, and I had to play it again, and I called up my buddy Rick Chadwick, and I said “oh my god I found the greatest band,” and that band was Cheap Trick.”

Decade after decade, Peduto’s musical taste changed, but after experimenting with many different styles and genres, new wave, a genre that was hard to avoid in the 80s, stuck with him for many years. His interests drifted along the ska and punk scene, but Peduto says his favorite band would have to be The Clash. “When I had an influence and an interest in government and politics — certainly The Clash was speaking about that and the conditions within England at the time that were also very much felt by cities like Pittsburgh.”

Peduto says nowadays his girlfriend, as well as WYEP, is his way of hearing about new music. Peduto and his girlfriend would go to shows and that’s ultimately what brought them together, he said. “I guess there’s a lot of different ways that [new music] comes in, but it’s really through the same ways — traditional radio, friends and a bit of new media.”